Reader MeiLin Miranda recently had a traffic interaction I thought was worth sharing. It’s a story about a display of road rage being defused by a passerby on foot that came to the verbal aid of MeiLin and her daughter while they were biking in Southeast Portland…

“My 14-year-old daughter and I had made a last holiday shopping expedition to the Hawthorne District and were cruising west down Madison on our bikes. I think it was at 37th when this happened — it’s a really narrow street that should have parking removed from one if not both sides of the road, but alas.

“They’re legal, they’re at a stop sign, and there are cars coming! What is with you? What do you want them to do? Seriously, what do you expect them to do?”

We were stopped at the intersection (Madison has the stop but 37th doesn’t). A bunch of cars on 37th decided it would be awesome to all try to get through the bottleneck at once from both sides. What a mess. People backing up, driving onto the sidewalk, cars coming and going in weird ways. The intersection was dangerous, and not just for bikes. Thank goodness they were all moving slowly. Even if it had been a four-way stop there was no safe path through the intersection even if it looked clear; there was too much wackiness on both sides.

The car behind us started honking at us really aggressively. Suddenly a young man on the sidewalk announced in an extremely audible voice, “They’re legal, they’re at a stop sign, and there are cars coming! What is with you? What do you want them to do? Seriously, what do you expect them to do?” He said more that I don’t remember — nothing abusive, just standing up to the driver. He didn’t confront the driver and kept walking, and the driver stopped honking. I was flustered enough that I didn’t say “thank you.” (The kid says she did but doesn’t think he heard her.)

I am a really safe, visible, non-confrontational, law-abiding bicyclist; I don’t block traffic, I obey traffic laws, I take my lane but if I can defer safely, I do. Even so, I have had similar things happen where aggressive honking has turned into dangerous speeding past, verbal abuse and so on, as have we all. One guy almost pushed me off the road on 12th past Powell just that way. Aggressive honking is nerve-wracking; you always have to wonder if the driver is going to escalate.

I think this guy coming to our defense shut the aggressive driver down, and I’m grateful; he un-harshed my holiday mellow. I wish I could have thanked him better.”

While the aggressive honking and behavior of the person driving the car was unfortunate, the actions of the stranger remind us that we’re not alone out there.

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Posted on December 29th, 2011 at 9:43 am. Filed under Front Page and tagged with , Reader Stories, Road Rage.
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It might upset her notion that bicyclists’ riding habits are usefully singled out as endangering others, and no funding for ‘their’ infrastructure will be forthcoming until they all shape up and obey all traffic laws.

“In August, she told us she would vote for the City’s federal funding request for a bike-sharing system only when, “I see bike riders using downtown streets and sidewalks in a safe manner.” She said she regularly sees “cyclists… endangering and harassing pedestrians” on the sidewalk and that, “The cycling community seems to be doing little or nothing to educate riders or reduce these dangerous behaviors.”

Agreed. Not bike related, but one time I was walking down the street and some dude made some untoward comments about my body, not an uncommon experience. A random woman chastised him and it was so awesome. Only time that has ever happened. Amazing how frequently people just ignore indecent behavior.

I think all cars should have a circuit that deploys the airbag if the horn is held down for more than three seconds. I know that sounding the horn is an important way to alert someone to a dangerous situation, but these jackholes that lay on the horn for several seconds are only screaming out a big FU to everyone.

Come up with some new ways to participate in Christmas, people. Extensive shopping, in wintertime, at the same time many other people are doing it, is not a recipe for happiness. That goes for the hapless bikers, the hurried slow-motion criss-crossers, and the impatient aggro honker.

I wonder if the person laying on the horn was specifically frustrated with the people ahead on the bike, or just out of general frustration with the chaos of Christmas traffic.

Something that ought to maybe be included in the drivers manual, is a point to prospective drivers, explaining to them how loud car horns are to people when they’re not in a car and located near a car whose horn has been activated.

The intensity of motor vehicle horns to unshielded ears is something it would seem everyone that drives should be aware of, but maybe aren’t

This has happened to me before, several times. I’m waiting at a stop sign for traffic to clear before proceeding (they did not have a stop sign) and driver honks at ME for not putting myself in front of traffic! All I did was turn around, look at him and then pointed to stop sign. He stopped honking. I’ve done this before at other intersections with success, and it also works at path crossings that are marked with signage indicating bike/ped crossing giving me the ROW over the drivers on the street; plant myself near the crossing sign and point to it as drivers go by…it usually works pretty quick. My greatest fear is at one stop sign at the bottom of a hill, in which the sidewalk is bumped out and the street narrows. The street is too narrow for both a bike/car at the same time so I have to take the lane. If there’s other traffic with ROW (3 way stop at T intersection) or peds, I come to a full stop to yield. I try to signal my stop for drivers behind me, but it’s not always possible to remove one hand while braking – I also make it clear I am stopping here by often putting a foot down. Drivers constantly roll the stop and expect me do to so too or crowd me because I’ve stopped and they are inconvenienced for 3 seconds. This is where I fear a rear-ending the most, drivers not expecting a full stop from a cyclist, but then getting pissed if I do a full stop. It’s less about the ROW than driver impatience.

There’s really no excuse for expressing frustration by laying on the horn. It’s a simple fact though that people on occasion use the horn this way.

Some people have strong feelings to the contrary, but I think it’s possible to be fairly low key in the use of their car’s horn for practical purposes:

“…It is possible to “whisper” rather than “shout” with a horn. Don’t lean on it. Just tap it. …” John Lascurettes

I considered whether prospective driver’s as part of their driver’s test, should maybe be subjected to the blare of a car’s horn while standing right next to it. Interesting to think what the reaction to such a proposal might be. Not enthusiastic, I would think.

I was riding the dangerous no bikelane stretch of Columbia Drive the other day. Traffic was light in mid afternoon and good visibility and I was riding with a SuperFlash blinking. Knowing the dangers of that stretch and given the traffic conditions I was taking the lane and watching for cars in my mirror. As cars approached from behind they slowed down and started to move left, then I would move as far to the right as was reasonable and let them pass.

Then this SUV turns onto Columbia, not even up to the speed limit yet and while at least 5 car lengths behind me starts honking repeatedly. Being dangerously stubborn I held the lane until she was right behind me honking like a maniac and continued to honk even after I moved right to let her by. Idiots.

I had the opposite experience with a passerby. I was biking in the bike lane on NW Broadway between the bridge and Burnside doing 20-something MPH and was even with a hood of an SUV next to me. Suddenly the guy speeds up, barely passing me, throws on his blinker and turns right at the corner in one maneuver. I had to slam on my breaks to avoid hitting his quarter panel and going down.

I chased him down and let him know that what he did was very dangerous and illegal. Yes, I was shouting, it was passionate and I was still shaking – but there wasn’t a single name call or mean thing said between either of us. So I was saying to him, “Please! Watch what you do. Check around you! You nearly killed me!”

A woman walking past on the sidewalk shouted, “what do you want, at least he said he was sorry!” as if I had no justification for being as concerned as I was. She’s right, he did apologize, but her tone was one of being incredulous that I had anything to complain about at all.

As I posted to my fb feed that day:

To the guy that almost right hooked me to my death at 25 MPH in the bike lane, thanks for apologizing when I got in your face. No name calling by either one of us.

To the lady that yelled from the sidewalk, “Hey, at least he apologized” – ƒµ¢k you and butt out. Does that suddenly diminish the illegality or danger of what he did? (answer: no)

You missed getting hit by an SUV? Was it decrepit? Damn. You might have missed an impromtu vacation followed up by getting paid by the dudes insurance. His fault, your money plehbwoi. Bones heal. Bank accounts don’t.

Actually the guy was rather graciously sorry and receptive to hearing me out. He never once argued that he didn’t do anything wrong. I educated him on the side path law, both how I’m relegated to it and how he must yield to all traffic in it. I also just requested that he always, always check his surroundings more.

I talked to the woman later too. Yup, rolled over to her and asked her if she understood the gravity of the situation and she just re-squawked, “he said he was sorry, what more do you want?” and kept on walking.

it is not at all uncommon for the second car in line at an intersection to lean on the horn when the driver of the first car is waiting for pedestrians to clear the crosswalk before executing a turn. i will often chastise the offender, but i admit this is largely because the horn startles me, not because i have an instinct to be helpful. when you are trapped inside a metal box, the horn is the only “voice” you have, and because it is a shout rather than a whisper you have to learn to be without a voice except when shouting is needed.

It is possible to “whisper” rather than “shout” with a horn. Don’t lean on it. Just tap it. When I can see that the person in front of me is looking down at something in their lap (such as a phone, oy vey) at a fresh green light, the reaction is much more appreciative when it’s done to just get their attention than to shout and whine with the horn.

Unless I missed the part about about the doors being stuck, I’d say “hiding in a metal box” is the reason most people that blare obnoxious noise at others immediately in front of them feel safe doing so. When people are less shielded (say, waiting for an escalator in a crowded store) they tend to be more discreet and civil.

I normally don’t take Madison either; we were coming from Fred’s, though, and it’s the safest way I’ve found to get to and from 34th to Fred’s. We don’t even ride 34th much, either–it’s busy! We usually cut down to 32nd as soon as we’re able. Even were we to ride one block north, we’d still have to go down Madison to cut over–no way I’m riding down 38th by Fred’s! ;)

I’ll have to reconsider our usual route, at least at the holiday season.

I think you raise valid point. Why is SE 34th SO BUSY? It is supposed to function as a bike boulevard. Yet in actuality, it functions as little more than two lanes of extra auto capacity for SE 30th. It’s completely unacceptable.

Still, one should be careful trying to “calm” a frenzied driver. One could easily find oneself (at best) staring down the barrel of a gun. See the recent incident (and near-tragedy) recounted recently in the NY TImes:

Yep, can’t live your whole life as if the worst possible consequence of any action might happen. If that was the case, none of us would be on bikes. You’re probably more likely to get creamed by a bad driver anyday that shot.

I am around guns and their owners a LOT, and as a liberal amongst conservatives, I am often on the wrong side in a political discussion. These discussions often get extremely heated (I don’t back down when i have facts on my side.) I have never, *not even once*, had a gun pointed at me.

Of course, this wasn’t on a bicycle. Maybe that was the missing ingredient?

You know, there are a lot of slow-moving vehicles on the road that are not bikes. Buses and large trucks of course, but there are also mail trucks, garbage trucks, etc. We all get stuck behind them. Do people honk at a Tri-Met bus for stopping to pick up or drop off passengers? No, they simply deal with it. So why should being behind such a vehicle at a busy intersection be any different? At least they weren’t behind my wife’s grandmother in her car, they could have been there all day.

Carrying a weapon will only escalate any situation. The urge to pull it to “prove a point”…or get that apology that never seems to come – may seem a good idea…at the time. But accidental misfires, return fire, innocent bystanders…and most importantly…REGRET – will haunt the rest of your life. I always feel a little guilty and ashamed even when i feel i’m in the right, when i get hostile & vocal. I always seem to let the “fight or flight” instinct turn me into Mr.Hyde. Then later, with hindsight i feel i over reacted. The adrenaline alone from a near miss could lead to someone getting hurt too easily when a firearm is involved, when what we’re all really after is to get where we are going safely and with mutual respect.

Its about standing up for what is right, and using the easiest tool at hand (literally, the voice) to make clear what is right and what is wrong.

If someone chooses to carry a different tool (hammer or ulock or blunderbuss) I am sure we can all agree that things *could* get out of hand, but one would hope that cooler heads would simply stick to the easiest tool at hand: vocal chords.

I have noticed this A LOT on SE Madison too. Between SE 6th & SE 30th, a cr*p-ton of motorists now use it to avoid the traffic that gets backed up on Hawthorne, or, heaven forbid, having to wait 12 seconds at a red light.

I had one particularly nasty incident with some sort of pizza delivery SUV about a month ago, that decided that despite it being a quiet, low-traffic neighborhood side street, they ought to have the GD right to floor it up the street at 35 miles per hour. They honked aggressively & then sped past me far too close.

I don’t know what pizza company it was as the driver was going way too fast, but the SUV was white, and I distinctly remember one of the words it had emblazoned at a jaunty angle on the back of the vehicle was “garlic”. Hotlips? Pizzacato?

If anybody knows, I would LOVE to find out. I really, really want to write a letter of complaint to that pizza company.

PS. There’s been a lot of talk about “weapons” here in the comments section. While the urge to smash a few windshields with a u-lock is ever present, I would of course never actually do that.

So what’s a girl to do?

THIS.

Don’t forget the most important weapon of all when biking… YOUR CELL PHONE CAMERA.

You would not believe the unbelievable level of sudden “cooperation” I encounter from aggressive, vile motorists the moment I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and point it directly at their front license plate, so that they can see me doing it.

I have never seen so many horns stop honking, & fast apologies issued in my life. If it wasn’t so depressing, it would be hilarious.

Stripes wrote, “Don’t forget the most important weapon of all when biking… YOUR CELL PHONE CAMERA.”

Or your helmet cam. I have it running all the time I’m riding. It’s not as obvious as a cell phone camera. But on the other hand, a running helmet camera doesn’t require you to take your hand off the handlebar and go into your pocket.

Stripes also wrote, “I had one particularly nasty incident with some sort of pizza delivery SUV about a month ago….” A helmet cam might have captured the name of the pizza company and maybe even the license plate.

I’d simply over-write the same recorded data day after day UNLESS something out of the ordinary happened, then I’d archive it. That would cut down on the amount of data that has to be saved, just like how store security footage is being over-written constantly unless it needs to be saved for a specific reason.

Transfer the data to an external disk drive. Put each day’s clips into a directory named after the date of the clips.

When the drive fills, decide what to delete.

Any day where there is only 1 clip is probably a day that can be deleted. Because 1 clip means I never flipped the switch on the camera to stop the current recording and start another, because something interesting just happened. Similarly, if it is a commute day, and if there are only 2 recordings, one for the trip to work, one for the trip back, that’s also a candidate for deletion.

I’m running Linux, so I have tools available that’ll tell me how many files are in a directory, etc. That helps make automating the deletion process a little easier.

Archiving clips to offline media like DVDs or tapes is possible, if you have the money or patience. Tapes drives are expensive, and the tapes are not cheap either. DVDs are big enough to hold most clips. But they take time to burn. Then you have to organize a stack of DVDs.

Another option is to buy another disk drive when the first one fills. I just did that. That also has a problem: what to do when the second drive fills.